Congress councillor Raj Kanwalpreet Pal Singh Lucky said no transport company has shown interest in the state government’s Rs 600-crore Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).

Congress councillor Raj Kanwalpreet Pal Singh Lucky showing the advertisement given by the state government at a press conference in Amritsar on Sunday.(HT Photo)

Congress councillor Raj Kanwalpreet Pal Singh Lucky said no transport company has shown interest in the state government’s Rs 600-crore Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).

Lucky said this at a press conference here on Sunday.

“It’s been 45 days that the state government has been making efforts to get operators for the project. The government also issued advertisement for it,” the councillor said.

“The administration has published the advertisement in national dailies and some vernaculars of south India to attract operators from Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, but got no response,” said Lucky.

He added that the reason for operators not showing interest was that they “are not able to trust the Punjab government as a earlier a transport company had a bad experience working with the government”.

“It is a dream project of Punjab’s deputy chief minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal. The 31-km stretch for plying the buses has already been made and now, if the buses do not ply on it, it will be embarrassing for the government,” Lucky added. BRTS DECODED In the Bus Rapid Transit System, AC buses run within a dedicated corridor. As no other traffic is allowed in the corridor, the buses run without any traffic hindrance and take less time to cover distances

In Amritsar, the corridor has been constructed in the middle of the four-laned road at some places. Normal traffic will run on both sides of the corridor. For the purpose, the width of these roads has been increased

At some places, the BRTS buses will run on roads with mixed traffic with no corridor — this distance is short

The corridor is wide enough to allow two buses coming from opposite directions to pass each other without any hindrance

There will be bus stops after every 500-metre. Special pedestrian lanes with traffic lights will allow passengers to cross over to bus stops

To reach the elevated portion of the corridor, lifts have been provided